ARTICLES

The 802.11ad (WiGig) chipset market is set to reach a critical juncture in 2017 when the technology hits higher adoption levels in the mobile and computing space. ABI Research forecasts 180 million WiGig chipsets will ship to the smartphone market in 2017, with smartphone chipsets accounting for almost half of the 1.5 billion total market shipments in 2021.

GPS personal tracking device shipments will more than double by 2021 with a 21 percent CAGR as the industry shifts away from traditional markets, such as family and pet locator devices. ABI Research predicts that non-traditional markets including elderly/health, corporate, and personal asset tracking will embrace ubiquitous indoor and outdoor location technology.

ABI Research, the leader in transformative technology innovation market intelligence, projects that mobile broadband operators will reap 5G revenues of $247 billion in 2025 with North America, Asia-Pacific, and Western Europe being the top markets. Specifically, network operators, vendors, and standards bodies will finalize technical details concerning the millimeter wave by 2020, with rollout ramping up afterward.

The evolution toward 4.5G and 5G will be imminently accompanied by substantial network densification and massive deployments of small cells. The trend will completely transform the backhaul market and create tremendous opportunities for wireless backhaul links. ABI Research, the leader in transformative technology innovation market intelligence, forecasts that the market will deploy more than one million Sub-6 GHz licensed backhaul links by 2020.

As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, use of wireless handsets, particularly smartphones, continues to be on the rise, with product shipments showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon. In its latest market data report, ABI Research, a leader in technology market intelligence, assesses the top 15 vendors globally dominating the wireless handset industry, closely examining key factors that continue to drive this continued market growth and predicting future industry patterns.

Two wireless charging standards are competing for market share as the next generation of resonant wireless technologies is nearing readiness. ABI Research forecasts that through 2020, 713 million Qi and 213 million Powermat/Rezence chargers will ship, along with a small number of proprietary technologies.

In recent years, LTE has emerged as a challenger to existing public safety communication protocols. Continual refinements from 3GPP Releases and commercial collaboration between TETRA and P25 vendors with LTE vendors are turning First Responder and Public Safety LTE into a reality. ABI Research estimates the total number of public safety LTE user subscriptions to reach 11 million worldwide by 2020, with a market size of $5.1 billion.

According to ABI Research the increasing adoption of IoT within industrial settings will result in a substantial growth of the number of connected industrial devices, in particular industrial control devices like PLCs. The research firm estimates that over the period from 2014 to 2020, the number of connected industrial controllers will triple; growing at an average rate of 20 percent.

The global market for LTE capable antennas for wireless infrastructure, including passive and active types, is set to reach almost $4 billion in 2015, according to the latest forecast from ABI Research.

ABI Research estimates that there will be nearly 1.37 billion 4G LTE subscribers worldwide by year-end 2015, up from nearly 650 million in 2014. ABI Research forecasts that the LTE subscriber base will exceed 3.5 billion by 2020, demonstrating a 5 year CAGR of 20.8%. The exponential rise in LTE points-of-presence covered justifies the need for sustained investment in LTE infrastructure, which is expected to grow nearly 10% year-on-year.